Kelsey Beeghly
Kelsey Beeghly
Fellowship Placement: Library of Congress
Hometown: Altamonte Springs, FL
Kelsey Beeghly has been a science educator since 2016. Most recently, she served as the curriculum and assessment coordinator at Orlando Science High School in Orlando, Florida. Kelsey began her teaching career as a high school biology and AP environmental science teacher in Brooklyn, New York, then returned home to central Florida to teach middle school life science and physical science at Orlando Science Middle School. She completed her B.S. in Biology at the University of Central Florida before accepting a position as a corps member in Teach For America. During her two-year commitment, she earned her M.A.T. from Relay Graduate School of Education, with a dual focus in secondary science and teaching exceptional learners. In 2020, she returned to the University of Central Florida to begin a doctoral program and graduated with her Ph.D. in science education in the summer of 2023. She has been recognized as a highly effective educator in the state of Florida and has embraced many opportunities throughout her career to better herself as an educator. These include the AP for ALL program, which increased access to AP courses among low-income high schools in New York City, bringing students to the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics competition, sponsoring a student-led environmental club, serving as a science fair judge and mentor, and volunteering as an assistant coach for her school softball team. Additionally, during her doctoral program, she took elective coursework to earn certificates in both advanced quantitative methodologies and postsecondary instruction. Kelsey has presented self-authored science lessons and individual and collaborative research at local, national, and international conferences. She resonates with the call of “All Standards, All Students” that emphasizes the need to make high-quality science education accessible to every K-12 student across the country. She believes that in addition to and beyond content proficiency, students need to be able to apply scientific knowledge, understand how that knowledge develops to begin with, and recognize and experience firsthand the practices that scientists use in these pursuits. This will equip students with the scientific literacy needed as adults to interact with science and make science related decisions daily that have both personal and far-reaching consequences, regardless of whether they join the STEM workforce. Kelsey plans to use her expertise in nature of science education to address this need at a local, state, and national level.
